Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James expressed dissatisfaction with the officiating during their narrow 101-99 loss in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets on Monday, April 22, at the Ball Arena in Denver.
The 39-year-old forward criticized the NBA Replay Center for its ruling on Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr.'s contact with Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell, who was struck in the face at the end of the third quarter.
"I don't understand what's going on in the replay center, to be honest... D'Lo clearly gets hit in the face on the drive. What the f**k do we have a replay center? It makes no sense to me. It bothers me... What are we doing?," the NBA's all-time leading scorer said during the post-game press conference.
Porter struck Russell in the face during a drive with 39.5 seconds left in the third quarter, and the referees initially deemed it a foul.
However, after the Nuggets challenged the call, the referees overturned it with the assistance of the NBA Replay Center.
D'Angelo Russell also thinks that Porter committed a foul
Russell took to social media to vent his frustration over the overturned call, which could have resulted in two free throws or a flagrant foul on Porter.
"That's a foul we all saw it on national television," the 28-year-old posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Given the two-point margin of the final score, this call was undeniably significant despite occurring late in the third quarter instead of crunch time.
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